Chapter 4. Linking sites

A service network consists of Application Interconnect sites. This section describes how to link sites to form a service network.

Linking two sites requires a single initial directional connection. However:

  • Communication between the two sites is bidirectional, only the initial linking is directional.
  • The choice of direction for linking is typically determined by accessibility. For example, if you are linking an OpenShift Dedicated cluster with a CodeReady Containers cluster, you must link from the CodeReady Containers cluster to the OpenShift Dedicated cluster because that route is accessible.

Procedure

  1. Determine the direction of the link. If both clusters are publicly addressable, then the direction is not significant. If one of the clusters is addressable from the other cluster, perform step 2 below on the addressable cluster.
  2. Generate a token on the cluster that you want to link to:

    $ skupper token create <filename>

    where <filename> is the name of a YAML file that is saved on your local filesystem.

    This file contains a key and the location of the site that created it.

    Note

    Access to this file provides access to the service network. Protect it appropriately.

    For more information about protecting access to the service network, see Using Skupper tokens.

  3. Use a token on the cluster that you want to connect from:

    1. Create a link to the service network:

      $ skupper link create <filename> [-name <link-name>]

      where <filename> is the name of a YAML file generated from the skupper token create command and <link-name> is the name of the link.

    2. Check the link:

      $ skupper link status
      Connection for link1 not active

      In this example no <link-name> was specified, the name defaulted to link1.

  4. If you want to delete a link:

    $ skupper link delete <link-name>

    where <link-name> is the name of the link specified during creation.